Hello Sunshine cuts half its staff, closes D2C arm in wake of Mediawan buyout

Reese Witherspoon in Hello Sunshine’s The Morning Show

Actor Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is laying off half its workforce, around 30 staff, following its buyout by France’s Mediawan.

According to US reports, the cuts are geared towards narrowing its focus to TV and film production and its Reese’s Book Club division. At the same time, it is shuttering its direct-to-consumer arm.

The lay-offs come three weeks after it was revealed that Mediawan and Witherspoon were teaming up to buy Hello Sunshine back from Candle Media.

Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ Candle Media, which is backed by private equity firm Blackstone, paid a reported US$900m for Hello Sunshine in 2021, a time when valuations were at their peak.

Other companies that raised capital during that period included Le Bron James’ Springhill Company. However, the market correction in 2022 changed investor sentiment around the value of celebrity-led media entities.

Although financial terms of the Mediawan deal were not divulged, it is believed Candle Media and Blackstone took a significant loss on Hello Sunshine.

The Witherspoon-led company has undertaken several rounds of lay-offs over the past couple of years as it has attempted to adapt to a fast-changing market.

In October 2025, it closed down its unscripted division on the heels of replacing its CEO. In parallel, Candle Media had been exploring options for Hello Sunshine for over 18 months.

Candle Media still owns Moonbug Entertainment, which is behind CoComelon and Blippi, as well as Exile Content and Faraway Road Productions, and holds a minority stake in Westbrook.

Hello Sunshine was launched in 2016 with backing from The Chernin Group. Over the past decade, the company has produced series and films including Big Little Lies, The Morning Show, Where the Crawdads Sing, Little Fires Everywhere, Daisy Jones & The Six, From Scratch and The Last Thing He Told Me.

For Mediawan, the acquisition of Hello Sunshine represented another major move in the US market after it took a majority stake in Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment in 2023 and earlier this year acquired Peter Chernin’s North Road.